Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court

Abdul-Jabbar reminisces about beginning high school at Power Memorial Academy as a 14-year-old who was six feet, 10 inches tall. While he wanted to fit in with his classmates, he mostly focused on excelling as a student and basketball player. As a teenager, Abdul-Jabbar had become much more aware of the ongoing civil rights movement. He followed the news about what was happening in the South, where Black Americans were agitating for the end of segregation laws. While Abdul-Jabbar felt insulated from these events in his “bubble”—his private high school in NYC was mostly white—he was emotionally invested in the success of the movement.

He was disturbed to hear about the violent Ku Klux Klan attacks on Freedom Riders, who had bussed to the South to show support for the civil rights movement. Abdul-Jabbar felt disappointed and frustrated that many of his classmates were apathetic or ignorant about such events. When he tried to engage them in conversation, he felt he made little headway in persuading them; this left him feeling “helpless” and “useless.” Because of such interactions, and his past betrayal by his white friends, Abdul-Jabbar largely withdrew socially from his white classmates. He also continued to question religion’s influence in people’s lives, as he observed that many people who disrespected Black Americans were also devoutly Christian.